2 Kings 5

Naaman Gets Healed & Gehazi Gets Greedy

1 Now, Naaman, the commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a big shot and well-respected by his boss, because through him the Lord had given Aram victories. He was a brave warrior, but he had leprosy.

2 One time, a raiding party from Aram had gone out and snatched a little Israelite girl, and she ended up serving Naaman’s wife.

3 She told her mistress, “Man, I wish my master would link up with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would for sure heal him of his leprosy!”

4 So Naaman went and told his boss what the little girl from Israel had said.

5 The king of Aram said, “Go on, head out! I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman dipped, taking about seven hundred fifty pounds of silver, a hundred fifty pounds of gold, and ten sets of fresh clothes with him.

6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel. It said: “Listen, when this letter gets to you, know that I am sending you my man Naaman so you can heal him of his leprosy.”

7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes and said, “Am I God, able to kill and make alive, that this dude is sending me someone to heal him of leprosy, Look, you all can see he is just trying to start beef with me!”

8 But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had ripped his clothes, he sent word to the king, saying, “Why are you ripping your clothes, Let him come to me, so he will know there is a prophet in Israel!”

9 So Naaman rolled up with his horses and chariots and stopped at the entrance of Elisha’s house.

10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River, and your skin will be restored, and you will be clean.”

11 But Naaman got heated and left, saying, “Look, I thought for sure he would come out to me and stand, call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot, and heal the leprosy!”

12 “Is not the Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, Could I not just wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and bounced in a rage.

13 But his servants came to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something major, would you not have done it, How much more when he just told you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, just like the man of God had told him. And his skin was restored like the skin of a little kid, and he was clean.

15 Then he and his whole crew went back to the man of God. He came and stood before him and said, “Look, now I know that there is no God in the whole world except in Israel! So please accept a gift from your servant.”

16 But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, the One I serve, I am not accepting nothing!” And though Naaman pressured him, he refused.

17 Naaman said, “Okay, if not, then please let your servant be given two mule-loads of dirt, because your servant is not going to offer anymore burnt offerings or sacrifices to other gods, but only to the Lord.”

18 “But for this one thing, may the Lord forgive your servant: When my boss goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my arm, and I also bow down in the temple of Rimmon, when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”

19 He told him, “Go in peace.” So he left him and had traveled a short distance.

20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought to himself, “Man, my master let this Aramean Naaman off too easy, not taking what he brought! As the Lord lives, I am going to run after him and get something from him!”

21 So Gehazi chased after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he jumped down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Everything straight?”

22 He said, “Yeah, it is straight. My master sent me, saying, ‘Look, two young men from the sons of the prophets just came to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them about seventy-five pounds of silver and two sets of clothes.’”

23 Naaman said, “Man, be my guest, take a hundred fifty pounds!” He pressured him and tied up a hundred fifty pounds of silver in two bags with two sets of clothes, and put them on two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi.

24 When he came to the hill, he took the stuff from their hands and put it in the house. Then he sent the men away, and they dipped.

25 He went in and stood before his master Elisha. Elisha asked him, “Where you been, Gehazi?” He said, “Your servant did not go anywhere.”

26 Elisha told him, “Did not my spirit go with you when that dude turned from his chariot to meet you, Is this the time to take money, and to take clothes, and olive groves, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and male and female servants?”

27 “Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your descendants forever!” And Gehazi left his presence, a leper, white as snow.